The Butterfly Effect
by We're All M-M-Mad Here
Summary: When Sirius Black was heading to his first year at Hogwarts, he was the first out of his family to run through the barrier, but how much would the wizarding world have change if he wasn't? How much can one seemingly insignificant action change the wizarding world? Well, we're about to find out...and it all started with a muggle losing his keys...
1. Insignificant Little Details

Prologue

_Insignificant Little Details_

There is a phenomenon where even the most minute change in the world can have large effects everywhere else. This is what we call the butterfly effect. Everyone, even witches and wizards, don't put much stock in it. Perhaps this is because we can never know for sure what each action and word and choice would have turned out like. Sure we can wonder, we can think 'what if?' but we will never know, not really.

Many people and creatures in the wizarding world, Centaurs being just one example, believe in fate instead, believed that everything has been mapped out in the stars for thousands of years.

The story of the friendship of the marauders, the infamous bond between Sirius Black and James Potter, the star crossed love of James and Lily Evans. All these were thought to have been decided by fate long before they happened. Sirius and James were to meet on the train, automatically feel that click between them and then spark a rivalry with Severus Snape and Lily Evans.

But what if one thing were to change?

In 1971, when the eldest Black brother was to start Hogwarts, Sirius and the rest of the Black family were going through Kings Cross Station. All of the family were looking forward to avoid interacting with the filth that was muggles, while Sirius looked around in awe, never been allowed to see muggles before.

The first time around, Sirius was the first to go through the barrier between platform nine and ten, eager to avoid his relatives. But what if he wasn't? What if he was the last? What could this seemingly inconsequential action change in the future?

Well, we're about to find out…and it all started with a muggle losing his keys.

Mr and Mrs Watkins were proud to say that their marriage was working out perfectly fine, thank you very much. They were in love and happy and there was food on the table and right now, surely that was all that mattered.

Mrs Watkins worked at a hospital not far from town, but was currently on pregnancy leave. She was a tall woman with dark skin and eyes, although she did have very pale blonde hair. Mr Watkins was a skinny and gangly man, with a rather large nose.

The Watkins had been together since they were fifteen, high school sweet hearts, married at nineteen and now, at twenty, Mrs Watkins was on her way to having her first child. Both their parents believe that they got together much too young and that it would never work out, they were just waiting for the day for them to show up on the doorstep admitting defeat, but Mr and Mrs Watkins were determined for that not to happen.

Despite being a happy, kind hearted couple, at the moment the Watkins were having money troubles. Mrs Watkins was thinking about quitting her job as a nurse once the baby was born and Mr Watkins was currently in between jobs. They were already cutting down to bare necessities so they didn't have much of an idea of how they were going to deal with a baby on top of that.

On September 1st, a bright, sunny Tuesday, our story starts, there was nothing about the sunny street outside to suggest that Mr Watkins was about to change the whole future of what was thought to be fated in the wizarding world. Mr Watkins frowned as he stood in front of the mirror, holding up a green tie and then a stripy blue one, wondering which one would make someone want to hire him. Mrs Watkins on the other hand, was sitting at the table, munching on a pickle dipped in peanut butter…it was painfully obvious that her cravings were in full swing.

At half past seven, Mr Watkins was rushing about the house in a panic, looking on every surface and in every drawer wondering where his keys could possibly be, he even checked his underwear drawer, but he could see hind nor hair of them, although he did find the watch he lost a few months prior.

"Love, have you seen my keys?" Mr Watkins called absently, as he lay down on the floor to check under the settee.

There was a muffled sound of Mrs Watkins' reply from the kitchen, which must have been a negative as Mr Watkins let out a groan as he stood up, looking about the living room as though a flashing light would appear to direct him to his keys.

Mr Watkins couldn't understand what he could have possibly done with them. He knew he had them yesterday when he drove to the grocery store, Mrs Watkins having sent him on a food run to satiate one of her insane cravings, but after that…nothing. Mr Watkins was incredibly clumsy and so often misplaced things, that was perhaps why he lost his previous job as a secretary, he could never keep the boss' time table in order.

He reached a hand under each of the cushions on the settee, but yet again found no keys, although he did find a hair clip, a biscuit, two old socks and over four pounds in change, which he pocketed before straightening up with a sigh. He scrubbed a hand over his weary face. This was the first job interview he had had in weeks, he couldn't afford to miss it because he misplaced his keys.

"Looking for these?" came a voice from behind him, Mrs Watkins' voice having a slight Spanish lilt.

He turned to see his, very pregnant, wife standing in the doorway, one hand on her swelled stomach and the other stretched in front of her with what he instantly recognised as his keys hooked on her ring finger.

Mr Watkins sighed again, but this time it was in relief. A tired smile appeared on his young face and he ran a hair through his dark hair.

"You," he said, moving forward to kiss his wife, "are amazing."

"I know," Mrs Watkins replied, a small smirk on her lips and her dark eyes filled with mirth. "Dios mio, what would you do without me?"

"Crash and burn, love," Mr Watkins smiled, chuckling slightly.

"And don't you forget it," said Mrs Watkins with a rather smug expression, giving her husband another kiss.

Just five minutes later, Mr Watkins picked up the stack of his credentials, pecked Mrs Watkins on the cheek, and rubbed her swelled belly, whispering goodbye to his unborn child. "I love you," called Mr Watkins as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of the drive.

Mr Watkins sat in the usual morning traffic jam, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as he looked about the road with a frown. "Come on," he muttered in annoyance as the traffic moved forward just a few feet. He couldn't afford to lose this job opportunity, he was not about to ask his parents for money, it was bad enough that he had to listen to their condescending words when they looked at the cheap furniture in his house.

He puffed out a breathe and briefly glanced at the car beside his before looking forward again. For a second, Mr Watkins didn't realise what he had seen, then he jerked his head back to the car to look again. In the window of the car beside his, two wide amber eyes were blinking at him, the eyes of a barn owl, perched in a copper cage. He blinked in surprise and the owl blinked back. What person actually had an owl for a pet? He wondered, but before he could muse on the thought much longer, the traffic finally moved and he lost sight of the car.

When Mr Watkins finally got to his destination, Kings Cross Station, he quickly made his way down the platforms, not noticing that the family with the amber eyed owl had turned up at the same place.

He shifted the pile of credentials to hold them in his left hand as he pulled a ticket from his suit pocket with his right. He was looking for Platform eleven. Mr Watkins sighed when he noticed that he was only at platform four and had just ten minutes to catch his train.

He picked up his pace so that he was in a brisk walk and weaved his way through the station. Mr Watkins was so distracted by the thought of being late that he noticed an eleven year old boy cross his path a second too late and he crashed into him. Mr Watkins' credentials fell to the floor and there was a loud, indignant screech as the boys cage, containing a cream barn owl with speckles on its chest and beady black eyes, crashed to the ground too.

Mr Watkins looked at the boy in surprise as he grabbed his cage and then began to help Mr Watkins gather up his papers. The boy had dark hair and aristocratic features, despite his young age, but that wasn't what surprised the man, it was that not only did the boy have an owl, but he had a rather large trunk too and he was dressed in strange, black robes. Now that Mr Watkins thought about it, there were quite a few strange people on the platform today, almost all of them having a trunk just like the boy's.

It took Mr Watkins a moment to realise that the boy was talking.

"-Wasn't looking where I was going," he was saying sheepishly, as he handed Mr Watkins the last of the papers from the floor and straightened up. The boy then looked over his shoulder nervously, as though scared someone would see him.

Mr Watkins stared at him for a moment before coming out of his stupor, shaking his head quickly, and straightening up also.

"No, no, no, don't even mention it, it was entirely my fault, I was running late, you see," he said kindly, before he looked at his wristwatch and saw that he only had two minutes left to catch the train. "I must dash, I'm sorry again" Mr Watkins said, before quickly hurrying away, not noticing that the strange boy was staring after him in unconcealed awe, having just had his first interaction with a muggle.

**Author's Note: This idea just hit me, so I would really like to know whether you think this story is worth continuing. It contains a Slytherin Sirius, Remus/Lily and Sirius/James. **

**Review whether you think I should continue!**


	2. Of Blacks and Lilys

Chapter One

_Of Blacks and Lilys_

The Blacks were a dysfunctional family, filled with pureblood mania and the belief that to be a Black made you practically royal. There was no trust or love joining them together, only a loyalty to blood that bordered on unhealthy. If a person were to mess with a Black, they would have the whole family after them within days, jouncing for brutal vengeance. The Blacks were a tight knit group, beautiful and unapproachable, so it was hardly a surprise that they went through Kings Cross Station together.

At the head was Bellatrix Black. She had a dark beauty about her. Her hair was a mass of dark curls, and her angular face made her appearance almost as sharp as her tongue. She had high cheekbones, red lips and her heavy lidded eyes were a black that often glinted with the madness that was not uncommon in the Black family, which many expected came from the inbreeding. Bellatrix looked at the world with the sole belief that it was hers to take.

At her side was the youngest of the Black sisters, Narcissa. Narcissa appeared to be the exact opposite of her beloved sister, well, looks wise at least. She had the same high cheekbones and the eerily pale skin all the Blacks possessed, but her hair was a white blonde and her eyes a cold blue, even with her nose turned up in superiority and arrogance, Narcissa was as hauntingly beautiful as the other members of her family.

On the other side Narcissa, was Regulus, the youngest Black brother. Regulus' beauty was more subtle, his hair a jet black and cropped short and his eyes the same shade of impenetrable blackness as Bellatrix's, only they weren't nearly as cruel and taunting. Regulus held himself with an elegance that could only be achieved by someone who believed themselves to be imperial. Regulus was often seen with Narcissa, both of them having the cold tempers that simmered rather than exploding, and having the same utter loyalty to family.

Just behind the three of them, was Andromeda, the last and middle Black sister. Andromeda looked much like her older sister, they could be seen as twins if it weren't for the age difference. However, Andromeda didn't command the same attention as Bellatrix did, who walked through the street like everyone and everything was hers to control. Andromeda was lighter than her sister, her black hair a shade lighter and her eyes much kinder.

At Andromeda's side, was Sirius, Regulus' older brother. While Andromeda was, without a doubt, Sirius' favourite cousin, Sirius got on better with Bellatrix than anyone else managed. They had the same piercing features and silver-tipped tongue, the same fierce temper and ability to duel as though it were a dance. When he and Bellatrix got along, people were weary, knowing what the two could accomplish together, but when they were fighting, it was explosive and volatile. Sirius commanded the same authority as Bellatrix did, with his courage and valour and he had the same dark magnificence with his fathomless grey eyes and his dark hair, which fell just past his ears.

"One would think," Bellatrix was saying, her black eyes moving about her surroundings, "that with a school such as Hogwarts, we would be able to get there without having to pass by _muggles_" at that point she was looking upon an elderly muggle woman with a look of extreme distaste.

Sirius and Andromeda shared a look, but otherwise held their tongues, knowing better than to ignite Bellatrix's temper in a public place such as this.

"At least you've left now, Bella," said Narcissa softly, she and Regulus being the mediators within the Black clan.

"Yes, I suppose," Bellatrix said haughtily, eyeing her youngest sibling, "and I will be married before too long"

"You're still with _Rodolphus_ then?" said Sirius, sneering Bellatrix's fiancé's name as though it tasted foul on his tongue, turning up his nose so that he resembled Narcissa.

Bellatrix turned to look at her cousin, an amused look swimming in her dark eyes as her red lip quirked upwards in a smirk. No doubt she was recalling the incident that made Sirius dislike the man so much. He had told Sirius' father that it was him who had ordered Kreature to put the stink pellets in Grandma Irma's soup; he had gotten quite the beating.

"Now, now, cousin, no need to hold a grudge," Bellatrix taunted, delighting in Sirius' dislike of the man, even if they were on good terms at the moment. "Besides, we got him back, did we not?"

This time it was Sirius' turn to smirk and his fathomless grey eyes mirrored the same dark humour that resided in Bellatrix's. Together they had taken Rodolphus down, fed him Veritaserum until he confessed to everything he had done in the presence of the whole family…he was black and blue for weeks.

"That we did," Sirius agreed, regarding his eldest cousin fondly.

"We're here," said Regulus.

Sirius looked up to see that his younger brother was indeed correct. They had stopped in front of the barrier between platforms nine and ten, the secret entrance to platform nine and three quarters.

"Do you want to sneak away?" Andromeda muttered in his ear, a mischievous look seldom seen on her face appearing. "We can leave them alone in their pure-blood mania."

Sirius' face split apart into a true smile, his grey eyes lighting up with the prospect of actually being able to talk freely, without Bellatrix reminding him that he must avoid all Muggleborns and must, with no exceptions, get into Slytherin.

"You go first, I'll be right behind you," Sirius whispered and Andromeda smiled, nodding.

Sirius turned his attention to his brother and other cousins, subtly moving forward so that he, his trunk and owl were blocking Andromeda so that she would be able to slip away unspotted.

"I wish I was going," said Regulus, but he wasn't whining or pouting, as that would be most unbecoming of a Black.

"Only two more years to wait, Reg," said Narcissa comfortingly.

"I don't expect he wants to wait at all," said Bellatrix, arching a dark brow in a condescending fashion towards her youngest sister.

Sirius eyed his brother and cousins, making sure their attention was fully on each other, before silently moving away, his owl's, Hades', cage in his left hand and his right pulling his school trunk behind him. Since his gaze was locked on his relatives as he moved towards the magical barrier, he didn't notice the muggle man heading towards him and they ran into each other.

Sirius staggered slightly with the collision, letting go of his trunk and there was a loud indignant screech from Hades as his cage fell to the floor, along with all the parchment that the man had been holding.

He quickly picked up Hades before moving to help the man to pick up his things. Sirius couldn't help but frown as he did, feeling at the parchment in confusion. It was much thinner than parchment and it was pure white. How strange, he thought, it must be a muggle thing.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said politely, feeling rather bad that he had ran into this man, who looked to be in quite the hurry. "I wasn't looking where I was going." He couldn't help but spare a glance over his shoulder to make sure none of his relatives could see him conversing with the 'scum' and apologizing no less and held in a sigh of relief as he saw the three of them disappear through the barrier.

"No, no, no, don't even mention it, it was entirely my fault, I was running late, you see," the muggle man said kindly, before he looked at his wristwatch, which Sirius eyed curiously, not having seen anything like it, it didn't even have any planets on it! "I must dash, I'm sorry again" he said, before quickly hurrying away.

Sirius watched after the man, taking in the strange clothing he was wearing. He had just spoken to a muggle, for the first time in his life, and he couldn't help but notice that the man had hardly seemed the vile creature his family made him out to be. That had to prove that he and Andromeda were right, they had never put much stock in their family's claims of superiority, but they had never managed to gather any proof, seeing as they weren't allowed to talk to anyone that was less than a pureblood, unless you count ordering around the house elf.

Sirius shook himself out of his stupor, not about to miss the Hogwarts Express now that he finally got to go, he had been waiting for this since Bellatrix turned eleven, that was eight years ago now.

He moved and placed Hades' cage upon his trunk on the trolley and straightened it out, he was just about to head towards the barrier at a run, when he caught something out of the corner of his eyes, or rather, someone. Turning, he saw that it was a red headed girl, looking to be the same age as him, and she was…crying.

He glanced at the barrier, then back at the girl before sighing in resignation, grimacing slightly, and moving towards the girl instead. Sirius was hardly looking forward to being close to a crying girl, as it wasn't like he had much experience in emotions, something which was frowned upon in his family.

Sirius only stopped when he was standing in front of her. Taking an educated guess, he gathered the girl was a muggle born, based on the strange clothes she was wearing. She was sitting top of her trunk, beside a small wicker basket, which, based on the mewling, Sirius suspected held a kitten. Her head was in her hands, her shoulders shaking and her red hair spilling downwards.

"…Are you okay?" Sirius asked, feeling awkward to say the least, his hands buried in the pockets of his black robes (which were, of course, adorned with the Black family crest).

"Do I look okay?" the girl said, sniffling slightly and not removing her hands from her face, but her shoulders weren't shaking nearly as much now, so Sirius supposed she must at least be trying to console herself.

"Well, I suppose that's a matter of opinion," said Sirius in a would-be-thoughtful voice, "your red hair's rather pretty"

This gained a giggle out of the girl and Sirius smirked, feeling his ego swell ever-so-slightly with the accomplishment. The girl finally removed her hands from her face, but she didn't look up, instead giving another sniff as she wiped the tears from her freckles cheeks.

"Do you need help?" Sirius asked, wondering if she could find the platform, that was the only reason he could think of for this girl to be so distressed.

"I doubt you can help," said the girl, her shoulders slumping in what seemed to be defeat, something Sirius had never witnessed before, what with his family being so prideful, and he frowned slightly at the girl.

His grey eyes were suddenly swimming with mirth and his lips turned up into yet another small smirk, she clearly thought him to be a muggle and unable to help her get to the platform.

"Is that so?" Sirius asked with unconcealed amusement. "What with the trunk and the cat, I though you would be going to Hogwarts, I suppose I should just leave you to it then?" he said, turning ever so slightly as if to leave, even though he had no intention of doing so.

At the mention of the Wizarding school the muggleborn girl's head snapped upwards and Sirius saw she had the brightest emerald eyes he had ever seen. He was only used to seeing his family, all dark blacks and grey, with the occasional blonde like the Malfoys and Narcissa, but this girl was so…vibrant, for lack of a better word, and Sirius found he rather liked that.

The girl's green eyes darted to his owl, now dosing in his cage, to his trunk, to his robes and then finally up to his face. Sirius raised a dark brow making his aristocratic features stand out further.

"Oh, but you're a wizard!" the girl cried in relief, jumping to her feet.

"Am I?" Sirius gasped in faux shock and the girl crossed her arms, but her look of disapproval had no heat. "I'm going for my first year. You are too I'd wager, and a muggleborn."

"How did you know that?" the girl asked in surprise.

Sirius looked the girl up and down, taking in her outfit. She was wearing trousers made of a strange blue material and a t-shirt with a logo Sirius couldn't even begin to make sense of.

"Call it an educated guess," Sirius said, raising his grey eyes to meet her again. "My name's Sirius Black."

"Lily Evans," the girl, Lily, said kindly, a smile lighting up her whole face, clearly at the prospect of not being lost on a muggle platform for much longer. "Do you know how to get onto the platform?" she asked.

"Yes," Sirius said shortly. Lily looked at him expectantly, but it faded when Sirius didn't answer, just raised his brows at her.

Seeming slightly impatient, Lily asked, "Well where is it?"

"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed in false surprise. "You wanted me to tell you where it was? Well you should have said." Lily rolled her eyes, but looked mildly amused nonetheless. "You just have to run straight at the wall between platforms nine and ten"

Lily's amusement had completely gone now. She glanced at the very solid looking wall, before looking back at Sirius sceptically, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

"This isn't some horrid trick, is it?" Lily asked, looking at him warily, as though expecting him to start laughing at how gullible she was being.

Sirius sighed, losing his teasing manor and instead looking upon the muggleborn with a kindness that, before now, he had only shown Andromeda, and occasionally his other cousins and brother.

"No." said Sirius. "Would it make you feel better if we did it together?"

Lily nodded with a relieved smile. Sirius lined up his trolley with hers before arranging him and Lily so that they each had a hand on each other's trolleys.

"Are you ready?" Sirius asked with a delighted smile, his grey eyes alighting with the possibilities that were soon to come as they took the train to Hogwarts.

Lily once against looked at the barrier, nerves drawing her brows together and causing the corner of her lips to get tucked away with worry. She looked back at Sirius and must have found something reassuring in his face as she smiled and nodded.

Sirius and Lily both took off at a run at the same time, straight at the brick wall between the platforms. They passed through the barrier as though it were made of nothing more than fairy dust and skidded to a stop a few feet away. Looking back, he saw that it was now a wrought iron gateway that said, platform nine and three quarters.

Lily let out a delighted laugh and Sirius smiled, if only because his new friend was smiling.

"Thank you, Sirius," Lily said, and she spared him a brilliant smile, before she began to make her way across the platform, apparently looking for someone, Sirius couldn't think who seeing as she was a muggleborn and all.

Sirius watched Lily's red hair disappear in the milling crowd on the platform. He had just made friends with a muggleborn. He couldn't wait to tell Andromeda. Finally, he allowed himself to look around at his surroundings. To his left there was a brilliant scarlet train, emblazoned with the words 'Hogwarts Express' and pearly white smoke getting emitted from the chimney.

He couldn't stop the smile that appeared on his face as he began to make his way through the crowd, looking for Andromeda. He could hear people saying goodbye to loved ones and hello to friends they had missed over the summer and owls hooting as cats slunk through people's legs looking for owners. He passed a woman with a big red handbag and a vulture hat talking to her son: "Now, you better settle down Frank, this is your third year, I expect good grades" "Oh, mum-!" Then he passed a woman in her fifties, with dark hair and even darker eyes, she was holding a broom in her hand and was glaring down at a messy-haired bespectacled boy: "The letter specifically says you aren't allowed them" she was saying sternly, moving the broom further away as the boy went to grab it back.

Sirius allowed himself another smile, despite his mother and father not coming to see him off like those boys' mothers had. He looked about the crowd once more, but was unable to see those Black looks that suck out like a sore thumb, so decided that Andromeda and Narcissa must be on the train already.

He pulled out his new wand and pointed at his wand, saying "Wingardium Leviosa" in order to levitate his trunk onto the train. His parent had hired a tutor to teach him and Regulus basic spells like that, heaven forbid someone know more than a Black. Sirius followed his floating trunk onto the train and began to make his way down it, looking into each compartment for any sign of his favourite cousin, laughing when he ducked a fanged Frisbee and heard a prefect yell "Fabian – Gideon – whichever Prewett twin you are! Get back here!"

Sirius paused when he saw a compartment that was completely empty, save for his new muggleborn friend Lily. She looked upset again, staring out of the train window with red rimmed green eyes and absently stroking the small, white kitten that was perched on her lap.

He frowned, wondering what could've upset her again, and went to enter the compartment to talk to her, however, no sooner had he touched the handle when he heard his name being called.

"Sirius!" he turned and saw that it was Narcissa, poking her head out of the compartment a few doors down. "Hurry now, before the corridors become too crowded."

"Coming, Cissy," Sirius replied, sparing one last concerned glance towards Lily and going to the compartment where Narcissa was.

The compartment already held six people. The first was, obviously, Narcissa herself, who was now sitting beside the window with a straight posture, looking as elegant as all Black's did. Beside her was her friend and forth year dorm mate Miranda Parkinson, who, with her squashed nose, had the appearance of someone who had ran into a brick wall multiple times. Sirius never ceased to wonder how the girl had befriended Narcissa, who put a lot of stock in good appearances.

Opposite them were two sixth years, who shared a dorm with Andromeda. The first was Alison Goyle. Sirius supposed she was rather pretty, with dark hair and deep-set brown eyes, but she was a rather broad girl. The second was Adrienne LeBlanc, who's hair was the same shade as Andromeda's and her eyes were a dazzling blue, which stood out from her tanned skin.

Finally, there was Andromeda, and Sirius tried not to show his relief that at least Andromeda was there and he wasn't stuck with just the other pureblood girls, the three of them already eyeing him appreciatively.

"I see they got you, 'Dromeda," Sirius whispered to Andromeda as he sat himself down beside her, casually using his wand to levitate his trunk up to hold.

"They wouldn't have if you had followed like you said you would," muttered Andromeda as Sirius put his wand back in his pocket.

"I have a god reason," said Sirius, excitement bubbling under the surface at being able to tell Andromeda, who was eyeing him with a raised brow, about his run ins with a muggle and a muggleborn. "I'll tell you later though, not fit for present company," he said, glancing over at the other occupants of the compartment.

Andromeda nodded, but still looked rather curious. Sirius sat back in his seat lazily, but with a grace only a Black could manage and flicked a stray strand of hair from his face.

"It is a good thing I caught you, Sirius," said Narcissa, coming out of her conversation with Miranda about where to best by dress robes, "who knows what kind of riff-raff you could have ended up being stuck with," she said, her nose turning up at the very thought.

"I suppose," Sirius said noncommittally. "Who were you actually looking for when you came out of the compartment, Cissy?" he said, taking on a rather teasing tone. "A certain Lucius Malfoy?"

Lucius Malfoy was a Slytherin third year that came from a long line of wealthy purebloods. He and Narcissa had been arranged to be married since she was twelve and he was eleven. Sirius wasn't overly fond of the bloke, but Narcissa had taken a shine to him, so he supposed it was better than the loveless marriage Bellatrix was heading into, although he supposed her one true love was that up and coming 'Dark Lord.'

Narcissa didn't blush, as that was not a valued look for a Black, but her pale cheeks did get a small pink tinge to them.

"You behave yourself, Sirius Black," Narcissa scolded, but Sirius easily saw the small smile tucked away in the corner of her lips.

"Yes, Sirius, don't tease her," Andromeda added and Sirius looked at her in surprise.

"Thank you, Andromeda," Narcissa nodded, sniffing indignantly.

"It's not her fault she's in lo-ove," Andromeda added in the same teasing tone as Sirius had used. Sirius let out a bark like laugh as Narcissa huffed and the other girls in the compartment began to giggle.

The rest of the train ride was rather dull for Sirius, as Narcissa, Miranda, Alison and Adrienne seemed to be content to gossip and point things out in the newest copy of Witch Weekly, which Sirius found terribly dull. He supposed he at least had Andromeda to talk to, but they could hardly talk feely given their company.

When the Witch that sold sweets came by their compartment with a kind "Anything of the trolley, dears?" Sirius and Andromeda were the only ones that bought anything, the rest of the girls were 'watching their weight', which was ridiculous because they were thin enough as it was. To entertain themselves, Sirius and Andromeda began to play a game where they had to eat an every flavour bean every time the other girls used the words "Pureblood" or "Respectable" and the phrase "Did you hear that-?" Nevertheless, their sweets were gone surprisingly quickly.

A few hours late, Sirius left to get changed into his Hogwarts robes in the toilets, leaving the girls to get dressed. As he was making his way back to their compartment, a voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately"

Although he didn't show it, as he joined Andromeda in the crowd thronging the corridor, he felt nerves twist in his stomach. As the Black heir he was well practiced in keeping up a façade, but that didn't help to get rid of his true feelings at all. He wondered if any of his other family members had felt this nervous, he doubted it, they were Slytherins through and through.

Sirius was different from the rest of his relatives, he had always known that. He was cheeky and mischievous and at times downright reckless, not to mention he didn't believe in any of that Pureblood superiority nonsense his parents spewed. Then again, Andromeda had gotten into Slytherin with the same beliefs, so surely that meant he would too, right? He wasn't sure he wanted to know what his parents, or Bellatrix for that matter, would do if he didn't follow tradition, although he supposed it would be amusing to see his mother scream like a banshee and the vein on his father's forehead explode.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Sirius held himself in his usually confident elegance, despite his worries and the brisk night air.

"Good luck, cousin," Andromeda whispered in his ear and Sirius spared her a smile before she followed Narcissa and the other Slytherin girls.

Sirius looked around, wondering where he was supposed to go, as his parents, aunts, uncles and cousins had all told him about the traditional boat ride all first years took. He was just about considering asking someone, when a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Sirius heard a gruff voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Firs' years!"

He looked up to see that the half giant gamekeeper's big hairy face over the sea of heads.

"C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Along with the other first years, many of whom were staring at Hagrid with mixed parts awe and fear, clearly not having heard of him, Sirius followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them due to the thick trees. Nobody spoke much.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!" and even Sirius couldn't keep him calm exterior and let an awed expression take over.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. All the stories he had heard of Hogwarts just couldn't do it any justice.

"Mo more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Sirius was followed into his boat by Lily Evans and a sallow boy with greasy hair, who appeared to be Lily's friend. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then FORWARD!" and the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass.

"Hey, Lily, who's your friend?" Sirius asked Lily with a smile, the sallow faced boy looked down his hooked nose at Lily in surprise, clearly not having expected them to know each other.

"Hi," Lily grinned. "Sirius, this is Severus Snape, Sev, this is Sirius Black, he helped me find the platform."

Sirius saw the look of recognition on Snape's face at the mention of his last name, and he looked like he was repressing a sneer. Sirius just raised a dark brow.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm sure," Sirius said, but with a small smirk that made it clear he meant nothing of the sort. Lily looked between the two boys with a frown before Sirius turned and stared at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face.

They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reach a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. Sirius could help but snicker slightly as Snape had to grab onto Lily to save himself from slipping, not possessing Sirius easy grace.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the hug, oak front door.

"Everyone here?" Hagrid called and after getting muttering of affirmation, raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

**Author's Note: First chapter, please go easy on me. How are you liking the budding friendship between Lily and Sirius? Anyway, please Review!**


	3. The Sorting of Lily Evans

Chapter Two

_The Sorting of Lily Evans_

Lily used to adore fairy tales. When she was small, it was her mother who had read them to her, with her usual serene voice and soft smile, and when she got a little older, it had been her elder sister Petunia who read to her. Lily always liked Petunia's readings best as she would do the voices and everything. Then, when she was old enough to read by herself, she would spend hours on end pouring over the pages and imagining what it would be like to live in such a magical world. And now she was here, standing in a castle called Hogwarts, and it was like all her childhood wonderings had come true.

Professor McGonagall, had led the first years into a room off of the Entrance Hall and told them to wait.

Lily was extremely excited to get started at school, she had read every single one of her school books at least twice, but with her excitement there was equal part nerves. She had no clue how she was going to get sorted and once she did, what if no one liked her? She prided herself on being a perfectly capable and independent person, just as her dad raised her to be, but she wasn't fond of the idea of spending seven years with people who disliked her.

However, Lily did find comfort in the fact that it seemed she wasn't the only nervous one. Many of the other first years were wringing their hands, their faces pale, and talking worriedly amongst themselves about how they could possibly be sorted.

"You know what I heard?" a messy-haired bespectacled boy spoke up, his voice loud enough to overtake the others. "I heard that you had to fight a dragon and that whatever tactic you use is how you're sorted into your house."

The other first years paled further, one girl nearby Lily looked like she was going to be sick. Even Lily felt her nerves spike, she didn't trust that boy as far as she could throw him based on that troublemaking glint in his eyes. Not to mention he was that horrid boy on the train that had made fun of Severus.

There was a low chuckle from beside her and Lily turned to see it was Sirius Black, the boy who had helped her find the platform. Lily wasn't entirely sure how she felt about him yet, he was nice to her and she felt he could be a great friend, but at the same time he had that spark of mischief in him that Lily wasn't sure what to make of.

"Do you know how we get sorted?" Lily asked him, noticing how he was laughing at that messy-haired boy rather than being scared witless like the others.

"Why, Lily, of course I do," Sirius smirked and Lily rolled her eyes at his taunting, but she was starting to get used to it.

"Well, care to share?" Lily asked, raising a bow challengingly, she wasn't about to be intimidated by him, even if he did have those dark, aristocratic features that seemed to demand attention.

From her other side, Lily saw Severus give a small sneer towards Sirius. She couldn't understand why he had taken such an instant dislike towards her new friend, it seemed as though as soon as he heard his name that Severus found a reason to dislike him.

"It's all decided by the sorting hat," Sirius said, his voice low so that the other first years wouldn't overhear. Severus tried to look disinterested, but Lily could tell he was listening in on the conversation. "The hat is placed on and it can see right inside you mind and decide which house is best for you. My cousin Andromeda reckons it can see the future too."

Lily got a thoughtful look on her face. She supposed that made much more sense than the rumours of duels and tests and troll-fighting that the other first years were sprouting. Lily wasn't keen on the idea of something getting into her innermost thoughts, but she supposed the hat was hardly going to tell her secrets.

"How do you know this?" Lily asked Sirius curiously.

Sirius shrugged lazily, putting his hands in his pockets.

"I'm a Black," he said as though that explained everything.

Lily frowned. She didn't understand what his last name had to do with anything, but Severus clearly did as he rolled his eyes. Lily decided she would just have to ask later.

The door to the chamber opened suddenly. Professor McGonagall had returned.

"Form a line, and follow me," Professor McGonagall told the first year.

Despite now knowing what was about to come thanks to Sirius, Lily still felt a twisting in her gut as she got into line between Sirius and in front of Severus. They walked out of the chamber, across the giant entrance all, which Lily was pretty sure she could fit five of her houses inside, and then through a pair of double doors to the Great Hall.

Lily had to choke back a gasp as she looked about the strange, splendid hall in awe. Instead of having electric lights, there were thousands of candles that were floating mid-air over four long tables where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.

Professor McGonagall led the first years up towards the teacher's table so that they came to halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. Lily fiddled nervously with her robes, her freckled cheeks flushing under the expectant gaze of the other students. Dotted her and there among the students were…ghosts. Shining a misty silver, Lily supposed they mustn't be evil like all the stories said, but Lily couldn't help but look away from them, slightly weary. Instead she looked upward and saw a dark ceiling with a few clouds obscuring the shining stars. Lily had read in Hogwarts, a History that it was bewitched to look like the sky outside.

Professor McGonagall had now place a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a rather old and dirty wizards hat. Lily thought her elder sister might have had a fit at the thought of wearing it, ever the neat-freak and perfectionist.

Lily got rather sad at the thought of her sister. Petunia had refused to see Lily off for Hogwarts, saying that she didn't want to be around 'freaks like you'. Her mum had stayed home with her, wishing her good luck with a tight hug, but her dad had had to leave for work just moments after he had dropped Lily off. It was a good thing Sirius was there really, otherwise Lily was not sure how she would have ever figured out how to get to Hogwarts.

A rip near the brim of the hat, opened and Lily supposed it must have been like the hat's mouth, as it began to sing:

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;

94

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

There were thundering claps from everyone else in the hall as the hat bowed to each of the four tables and then became still, as though it had never moved at all. Lily wasn't sure she would ever get used to these magical things, but Lily thought she didn't really want to. The moment she became used to it all was the moment that she would no longer get that shock of awe and Lily rather liked that feeling.

Professor McGonagall had stepped forward and was holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Clara!"

A pink-faced girl with a mass of ginger curls walked forward nervously and put on the hat, before sitting down,

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted after a slight pause.

The table on the right, which was decorated with yellow and black, cheered and clapped as Clara hurried forward. She quickly hugged a boy who was also at the table, and based on the similar features Lily supposed he must have been family.

"Avery, Juniper!"

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted.

Juniper Avery, who had sharp features and pin-straight brown hair, basically strutted to a table in green and silver. Lily wondered if she would join that table. She knew that Severus wanted her too, but she wasn't sure she was all that cunning or ambitious.

"Black, Sirius!"

Lily watched her new friend walk forward, in an almost confident manor, which Lily wasn't sure how he achieved and he sat down on the stool as the hat was place on his head. The hat took longer to sort Sirius than it had the other two, and it took almost two minutes for the hat to shout:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Sirius took of the hat and went to the green and silver table. He sat between a white-blonde haired girl and a girl who had similar features to Sirius. The three of them looked completely out of place among the others, beautiful and eye-catching, Lily supposed those girls must be Blacks too.

"Bones, Amelia" became the first Ravenclaw, which was the table second from the left with blue and bronze colouring and "Carter, Florence" became another Hufflepuff.

"Chang, Dao," a small, Chinese boy, then became another Ravenclaw.

Maybe Lily would end up in Ravenclaw. It would be nice to be in Slytherin, since Sirius was in it and she knew Severus wanted to be too. Hopefully Severus wouldn't mind her being a Ravenclaw, she knew he didn't much like the Gryffindors, shown by his reaction to that messy-haired boy on the train.

"Evans, Lily!"

Lily felt like her insides had frozen as she stumbled out of line and made her way to the four legged stool. She got a glimpse of the other students looking at her before the sorting hat was put on her head and it slipped over her eyes.

"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear and Lily clutched the sides of the stool with a white-knuckled grip to stop herself from jumping. "Smart, very intelligent indeed, you would do well in Ravenclaw, but what's this? You already have a connection to Slytherin, but no, no, no, that wouldn't do, no not at all. I know, GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat shouted the name of her knew house to the whole hall. Lily walked shakily to the red and gold table at the far left, which had erupted into cheers for the first time this sorting. Lily looked toward Severus, who was still in the line, and saw that he was looking at her sadly. She then turned to look at Sirius, who, much to her surprise, was already looking at her and he shot her a smile, cheering her slightly. At least she knew he would still be her friend, and Severus would hardly abandon her, they were best friends after all.

"Gudgeon, Davey!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

His sorting had taken a little longer as well, but Sirius' sorting had still taken the longest to decide. "Jorkins, Bertha," who was a chubby blonde girl, had almost forgotten to take the hat off as she went over to the Hufflepuff table, until a Ravenclaw had motioned it to her and she blushed furiously as she took the hat off.

"Lupin, Remus!"

Remus was a sandy haired boy, thin and weak looking, with a few scars on his pale face. Lily wondered how he could have possibly gotten those scars as he shakily made his way to the stool.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

He had beaten Sirius' record, his sorting taking a whole three minutes, before he moved to sit down on the table opposite Lily. She smiled kindly at him as she clapped with the others, and he gave her a timid smile back.

Lily and Lupin were soon joined at the Gryffindor table by "McDonald, Mary," who was a bushy haired girl with bright blue eyes and "Meadows, Dorcas" a blond haired girl, who looked to be even taller than Remus.

"Mulciber, Thomas," who had an extremely fierce face and mean brown eyes was then sorted into Slytherin, before twin girls "Nolen, Holly" and "Nolen, Jemma" were both sorted into Ravenclaw. "Pettigrew, Peter," who was terrified looking boy, stout and blond with water blue eyes, then became another Gryffindor and rushed forward to sit by Lupin, looking thoroughly relieved to be sorted.

"Potter, James!"

Potter turned out to be the messy-haired boy that Lily had already taken a disliking to after what he did to Severus. He all but strutted to the chair and the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!" Potter moved to sit on the other side of Lupin, a grin on his face as he ruffled his hair, having gotten into the house he wanted to.

"Ravenwood, Ophelia" and "Rosier, Evan" then became to more Slytherins.

"Severus, Snape!" was finally called and Lily looked up eagerly as Severus, moved nervously to the stool and the hat was put on his head.

Lily couldn't help but hope that maybe, just maybe he would get into Gryffindor with her, but a moment later, the hat called:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Lily's shoulders slumped and she looked at her best friend sadly as he went to sit next to Rosier and Mulciber at the silver and green table.

"Aww, did your boyfriend not make it?" Potter's voice said teasingly and Lily's gaze snapped towards him with a harsh glare and she didn't even dignify his taunt with a reply.

"Vanity, Emma," made it into Gryffindor and the sorting hat ended just a person later when "Zabini, Emileo," was sorted into Slytherin.

Lily looked up to the head table when she heard someone clear their throat. A rather old wizard with a long white beard, half-moon spectacle, and twinkling blue eyes had gotten to his feet. Lily knew that this was the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, who, according to the book she had bought for some light reading, had been appointed headmaster only two years ago when Dippet had retired.

Professor Dumbledore had his arms spread and a beaming smile as though the fact that they were all there was the thing that pleased him most in the world. Lily decided then and there that she would like him, he was nothing like that stern Mrs Fosters at her primary school.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Pop! Hippogriff! Squeak! Lowbow! Thank you!"

He sat back down and Everyone clapped and cheered. Lily frowned and clapped slightly in confusion, wondering if she should know what he had meant just then. She was distracted however when a loud gasp from Mary McDonald came from her right.

Lily looked away from Dumbledore and saw immediately what had shocked the other girl. The dished across the table were now piled high with food. Lily had never seen so much food in her life, not even at gathering like weddings and such.

She immediately began piling her plate with food and digging in eagerly. It was all very delicious. The food was even better than her mum's, although she supposed she would leave that information out of the letter she would send home.

"You're not still sad that you can't eat are you, Nick?" a third year said a few seats down.

Lily turned to see that he was addressing a ghost in the ruff, who had been eyeing the food sadly as people ate. Lily looked at the ghost curiously, wondering who he could possibly be so that he was haunting the school.

"That's Nearly Headless Nick," Emma Vanity told her, seeing her questioning look. "My older sister Yasmin told me about him, he's the resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower, just like the Grey Lady is for Ravenclaw, the Fat Friar for Hufflepuff and the Bloody Baron for Slytherin."

"The Bloody Baron?" Lily repeated, not thinking he sounded very pleasant at all.

"Yep, see?" Emma said, pointing over to the Slytherin table.

The Bloody Baron was a horrible looking ghost with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. Lily thought he looked as though he belonged in a horror movie. She felt particularly sorry for Severus right now, who was unfortunate enough to be sitting next to him.

"Does you sister come to Hogwarts then?" Mary asked Emma curiously as Lily turned away from the horrid ghost.

"No, she's left now, she works at Madam Malkin's in Diagon Alley. Mum's not at all pleased," said Emma, grimacing slightly. "She keeps say that Yasmin should work somewhere like the Ministry and it's all her fault for not getting anywhere, she didn't do all that well on her OWLs, see, and even worse on her NEWTs"

"What are they?" Lily asked.

"Oh, are you a muggleborn then?" Dorcas, who had nodded along with what Emma had said, asked.

"Yeah…it doesn't matter does it?" Lily asked, slightly nervous. She had asked Severus the same question once, she didn't want the fact that she was a muggleborn mean she did worse in the classes compared to the others.

"Not to me, but to some people," said Dorcas and Lily frowned when she saw her glance towards the Slytherin table. "Anyway, OWLs and NEWTs are the qualifications you get in fifth and seventh year, my brother's doing his NEWTs this year, my mum and dad have a bet going on, on how long it will take for him to crack under the pressure"

"That's horrible," said Mary, looking horrified at parents betting on their children.

"No, it's all in good fun," said Dorcas flippantly, "Tate's such a drama queen, honestly, he got a fever once and he was convinced he was dying. It had only taken a pepper-up potion to fix him"

When everyone had eaten as much food as they possibly could, the food faded from the plates to be replaced by desert. Even though Lily felt as though she was about to burst she was that full, she still managed to begin to eat some treacle tart, which had always been her favourite.

"I'm muggleborn too," said Mary, as she began to dip strawberries in her rice pudding. "Professor Dingleberry, the Herbology teacher, was the one to tell my parents once I got the letter. We're things always happened, like my sprouts turning into chips, that sort of thing, but it was still a nasty shock, my mum actually fainted"

"I'm a pureblood, never really seen a muggle since I live in Hogsmeade," said Dorcas. "I showed my first sign of accidental magic when Tate was picking on me because of my pigtails, a second later there was a flash and I wasn't the only one with that hair style, if you know what I mean."

Lily, Emma and Mary began to laugh at the very idea.

"My first magic scared the living daylight out of my parents," said Emma. "I was climbing a tree with my brother, Marcus, and I accidently fell, My mum had screamed, but a second later I had floated back up onto the branch, perfectly fine. My parents were so happy they invited the whole family over to celebrate."

"What about you Lily, what was your first accidental magic?" Mary asked.

"I don't remember the very first, but I would always play on the swings at the playground and jump off when I got high enough, but I would just float to the ground. It drove my sister insane, she hated it when I did magic," said Lily and tried to laugh with the others, even though she felt so sad at the mention of her sister, who thought she was such a freak now.

When the deserts had disappeared as the food had, leaving the golden plates glossy and clean again, Professor Dumbledore stood up. The hall fell silent at once, needing no prompting.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and waters. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is strictly forbidden and a few of our older students should remember that to."

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes moved in the direction of a pair of red headed twins further down the Gryffindor table, who were grinning and ignoring the stern glare another red head, a girl who Lily supposed must be their younger sister, was sending their way.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the third week of the term. Anyone, second year and above, interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I would like to give a warm welcome to our new Care Of Magical Creatures Professor, Professor Kettleburn."

Lily clapped with everyone else as a witch at the head table briefly stood up.

"And now, before we got to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore.

"Oh no," Mary moaned, flushing almost as red as Lily's hair and she supposed the girl must not like singing. Mary didn't seem to be the only one as the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.

Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

"Everyone pick their favourite tune, "and off we go!" and the school bellowed:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot.

Everybody finished the song at different times and Lily was just glad that the twinkle twinkle tune she had chosen was over rather quick, she couldn't imagine how embarrassing it would be to be the last to stop.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Dumbledore said, beaming. "Now, bed."

The Gryffindor first years followed the prefect, who introduced herself as Molly Prewett, the fifth year who had been glaring at the red-haired twins, through the chattering crowds. They began to make their way up the marble staircase in the entrance hall as other prefects led the other houses in different directions.

"I just want to get to bed, and sleep for the next ten years," Dorcas groaned and Lily only yawned in response as Mary and Emma leaned heavily on each other, as though too tired to even hold themselves up anymore.

"You have to be careful on the stairs," said Molly as she helped pull Peter Pettigrew up from a trick step he had fell into. "You have to remember where the trick steps are and if the stairs get bored or know you don't know where you're going, they'll change."

Lily shared a weary glance with Mary at that. With them both being muggleborn they had never heard of stairs that got bored. They were used to things just staying put, the idea that she could be walking to class and then all of a sudden be going in an entirely different direction made Lily rather nervous, what if it made her late for class?

"There's also Peeves, who's the Hogwarts poltergeist, never one to miss taunting the first years," Molly continued, a look of extreme disapproval marring her face when she said this, "no doubt you'll run into him soon."

Lily looked about the corridor worriedly at that, as Potter laughed, almost expecting the poltergeist to come and attack them. She saw no sign of Peeves, but what she did notice was that all the portraits on the walls were moving. One picture of a little ballerina, waved merrily as they passed.

"The pictures are moving," Lily gasped.

Dorcas looked over at her in confusion.

"Well of course they are, you don't expect them to just sit there forever do you?" she asked.

"In the muggle world, people just stay put in pictures," said Mary, eyeing a picture of a mean looking man cautiously as he sneered at her.

"Really?" Emma asked, looking at the two of them questioningly. "They don't move at all?"

Lily and Mary shook their heads.

"Weird," said Dorcas, sounding as though the idea of non-moving pictures was as bizarre to her as this whole school was to Lily.

At the very end of the corridor they were walking down was a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she said as they came to a stop.

"Holy Hippogriffs" said Molly.

Lily took a step back in surprise when the portrait swung open like a door, to reveal a large, round hole in the wall. They all moved through it, Peter Pettigrew needing a bit of help, and were met with the sight of the Gryffindor common room.

It reminded Lily off her grandparents' house, with its cosy atmosphere and squashy red armchairs.

"This is where you will spend the majority off your time between classes, or else you decide to go out onto the ground," Molly told them as she gestured around the room. "The girls' dorms are on the right and the boys' dorms on the left. And just be warned, no boy will be allowed up into the girls' section."

Lily, Dorcas, Emma and Mary made their way up to the top of a spiral staircase and entered their dorms. These too were decorated with red and gold. There were four four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains, which matched the plush carpet in the centre of the room. their trunks had been bought up to the room and were situated at the end of each bed.

Too tired to do much else, they all pulled on their pyjamas and muttered "Night," as they curled up to bed, Lily's white kitten, Calla, snuggled into her side.

Lily couldn't wait for the day to start tomorrow, the whole concept of magic fascinated her. She only hoped that she would have some classes with Severus and Sirius.

Her last thought was that she would have to compare time-tables with the two Slytherins tomorrow, before she relaxed further into her duvet and fell asleep.


	4. The Slytherin Bloodtriator

Chapter Three

_Through the Eyes of a Slytherin Bloodtraitor_

When Sirius was little, he was very different to how he is now. Not in the way that all children are different to their eleven year old selves, but in a way that his very core seemed to be rewritten. Vividly does he remember the time when he would soak up everything his parents and other family members ever told him, never doubting for a second that they were telling the truth, having that unflinching devotion to his family that all little kids have, and eager to learn more in order to make them proud.

That had all changed when he was just eight years old.

The ancestral home to the noble and most ancient house of Black is situated in central London, number twelve Grimmauld place to be exact. Even though most of the people living in the area were muggles, Sirius had never come into contact with one, the most he got was the occasional glimpse of a thing called a car through the windows, which his mother kept sealed shut. However, despite the abundance of muggles, there were plenty of hidden wizarding shops all about the town, in small alcoves, at the back of mundane looking stores and at the end of dark alleyways.

One day when Sirius had been walking to such a shop with his uncle Alphard (his mother's elder brother) a strange black and white ball had rolled over and come to a stop just in front of him. Sirius had stared down at it in confusion, stepping away slightly so that it wouldn't touch the hem of his robes, and wondered what on earth it could be. It was about the size of a Quaffle, but he had never seen a ball like that before. A boy around Sirius' age had quickly come up to them, panting slightly from the run, and had grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry about that," he had said easily and Sirius just blinked.

"It's alright, son," his uncle Alphard had said, crouching down to pick up the strange ball and hand it back to the boy, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder for good measure.

"Thanks mister!" the boy had grinned, before quickly running off. Sirius stared after him, and it took his uncle starting to walk again to snap him out of it.

"That was a muggle!" Sirius exclaimed with wide silver eyes, running to catch up with the man. His uncle just nodded, raising his brows down at Sirius and awaiting what he was going to say next. "You touched him, that means your contain-cotima-contam-"

"Contaminated?" Uncle Alphard asked and Sirius nodded, recognising the word that had once come out of his mother's mouth. His uncle gave a small laugh of amusement, shocking Sirius slightly. It wasn't often he heard such a happy sound. "My dear boy, I'm hardly contaminated. Tell me something, just looking at that boy now, what difference does he have to you?"

Sirius opened his mouth to spew out everything his mother had taught him to say on such a subject, but uncle Alphard held up a hand to stop him before he had even got one word out.

"And I don't want anything that your parents have told you, I want your opinion. How is he different to you?" he asked.

Sirius looked over his shoulder at the boy and saw that he was kicking the ball to some other children, his brown eyes were dancing and a huge grin split apart his face. Sirius tried to force himself into thinking about all his parent's teachings, that muggles are filthy, vile creatures who are nothing but scum that contaminate the earth and curse the wizarding world into hiding, but as he looked at that laughing boy, playing so freely, he just couldn't see it. The boy was so innocent. Innocence was the first that was taken from a child in the Black family. There was no place for innocence in a world full of monsters.

"He's happier," Sirius had answered softly.

Uncle Alphard had looked down on him with a sympathetic smile, but hiding behind it was a pride at being able to get through to his nephew.

"Come on, let's go," uncle Alphard said and put a hand on Sirius' shoulder to apparate them away. Instead of going to a shop that traded illegal potions ingredients like his father had insisted they do, uncle Alphard had taken him to a joke shop, and their sparked his love of mischief.

Since that day, Sirius had been questioning his families morals. He did it aloud at first, voicing his doubts, but from swift punishment he soon learned to keep them quiet and act like the Slytherin heir everyone expected him to be. This was the reason Sirius had been so looking forward to Hogwarts, it was a chance to make it on his own. Interact with those he had been curious about since he was only eight years old. Granted, being sorted into Slytherin meant that he had to continue his façade and try not to voice his opinions too much, not that it would stop him from speaking up if asked directly, he may be a Slytherin, but his pride and courage much outweighed his self-preservation.

Sirius knew the social hierarchy in Slytherin like the back of his hand, he had been living it all his life after all, so he wasn't at all surprised as fellow students began to find allies and not friends. In Slytherin how mean you were, how rich you were and how pure you were decided how high up you were on the hierarchy. Just by being a Black Sirius was already near the top, the Blacks seeming somewhat above all the other students with strange, wicked and unobtainable perfection. Sirius didn't pay much mind to such things, but he couldn't pretend not to notice how people stopped and just stared in the hallways as he, Andromeda and Narcissa walked about with their casual elegance.

First years Evan Rosier and Thomas Mulciber quickly formed an alliance (by the sixth day of school Sirius had already seen them hex, no doubt having been taught the curses early by their pureblood parents just as Sirius had, three students just for being muggleborn), which led to Severus Snape sucking up to them and throwing in comments about the dark arts to get into their good graces. Sirius took a disliking to all three of them almost instantaneously, especially Snape as he talked about 'Mudbloods' with the other two. Sirius had half a mind to point out that he was friends with a muggleborn, if only to see the greasy git squirm as he tried to talk his way out of that one, but the fact that he actually liked Lily held him back. He knew it wouldn't be just Snape that paid for the jibes.

The final occupant of the first year dorms however, Sirius actually found himself liking. Emileo Zabini was unlike any other pureblood Sirius had ever met at all the gatherings his family members always organised. The Italian boy was sharp witted and rather self-preserving, just as all Slytherins, but he was kind, seemed indifferent to blood statuses and he had a rather fumbling character, unlike the easy grace of the Blacks. Sirius seemed to click quickly with Emileo, much like he soon found out he did with Lily, Emileo's kind and funny personality complimented Sirius' cold wit and carelessly mean comments perfectly.

Speaking of his muggleborn friend, unlike Snape who seemed to spend his time looking over at the red and gold table mournfully, Sirius wasn't in the least bit surprised that strong, opinionated Lily Evans didn't get into Slytherin. Sure it would have been nice if she had been, but the pureblood Slytherins would have eaten her alive.

The first Friday of the term was a special day for Sirius and Emileo, as it documented the day that they had managed to find the Great Hall without asking anyone for help, or walking their with Sirius' cousins, or Emileo's older sister, who didn't seem to like her little brother at all.

As he ate at the Slytherin table, Sirius watched his friend with a look of amused confusion. Emileo was frowning in concentration, his wand pointing at a match in front of him and he flicked it, muttering the incantation they were taught just yesterday. Emileo appraised the match critically, and then began to mutter angrily in Italian when he saw that the match showed no sign at all that it was going to become a needle.

"I'm guessing you're not too keen on Transfiguration?" Sirius asked, his upper lip quirking in a smile Emileo seemed to give up on trying to transfigure the match and instead began to pile food onto his empty golden plate.

Emileo glared at him.

"Do I look like the kind of person who wastes time turning goats into pin cushions?" he asked dryly.

"Actually," Sirius said, "McGonagall specifically said that we wouldn't be doing animal transfigurations until-" Emileo cut him off with a rather rude hand gesture, which made Sirius chuckle in amusement.

Unlike Emileo's apparent hatred of the subject, Sirius found himself rather fond of Transfiguration. He discovered that the subject came easily to him, despite being one which his parents had deemed useless, probably because they couldn't use it to harm or intimidate people, and was the only one who had managed to turn his match into a needle, earning ten points for Slytherin and a rare smile.

As a matter of fact, Sirius proved himself to be an exceptionally bright student, who did well in all the lessons they had thus far. This included Herbology, which was held in the greenhouses with the Ravenclaws and elderly Professor Dingleberry, studying all the different magical plants and their uses, though according to Bella he wouldn't be getting to the more interesting (and dangerous) plants for another few years. Then there was astronomy, which Sirius sailed through, having spent large amount of times just looking at the sky and spotting members of his family amongst the stars. Finally there was charm, which was taught by tiny professor Flitwick (A half goblin wizard, who Sirius had heard of only though his family sneering over 'half-breeds') and Sirius found the lesson a lot of fun, and even managed to levitate Snape off of his seat, which he got away with by claiming his aim slipped.

However, the final subject he had had so far was History of Magic, which proved to be extraordinary dull. Sirius found it hard to even keep his eyes open for the subject, finding that even his mother's lectures on blood purity were more interesting that Professor Binns' droning voice speaking of various Goblin rebellions.

Sirius was snapped out of his thoughts when there was a loud rustling and looking up he saw that the owls had arrived to deliver post. He spotted his owl almost at once. Hades' circled the Great Hall once before he swooped down and landed beside Sirius on the Slytherin table.

"Thanks, boy," Sirius said, stroking his feathers and removing the three letters from his leg.

Hades' hooted affectionately and, after taking a gulp of pumpkin juice and a nibble of Emileo's toast, took off again. Sirius looked down at the mail he received. All the letters were made up of fancy parchment, tied with a black silk ribbon and the Black family crest on a wax seal, so he knew they were from family members. Opening the one on the top of the small pile, he saw that the first was from his parents.

Sirius had written to his parents the day after the sorting, knowing that it was expected of him. He told them that he was in Slytherin and made friends with Emileo Zabini, but he explicitly didn't mention Lily. He also casually though in that he didn't form an alliance with Mulciber or Rosier because they were with Severus Snape, who, Sirius realised on the second day of school when Snape mentioned his mother, was a half blood. Sirius knew that it would stop his mother nagging him to make alliances with them as he avidly recalled his mother's scandalised voice at Eileen Prince marrying a muggle, something that apparently still bothered her after so many years (apparently the two went to school together).

_Dear Sirius,_

_Congratulations on getting in Slytherin, we are very pleased to see that you are upholding the family tradition and not bringing the Black name any shame, and must insist you continue at this standard. _

_We have heard much of the Zabini family and approve in the choice in friends. There hasn't been a close alliance between the Blacks and the Zabini's for decades so it is a welcome change. As for Mulciber and Rosier, we don't blame you in the slightest for not wanting to associate yourself with them if they allow the presence of that Half-Blood boy. After what Eileen did I'm surprised any respecting Slytherin would even look at the boy. _

_We expect to receive word soon about your lessons and how you are getting on. Make sure you work exceptionally hard in everything, but most especially Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts, granted you word benefit more from learning the Dark Arts themselves rather than to defend yourself against them, but it is nothing a bit of extra tutelage at home won't fix. _

_Keep us update on your progress,_

_Mother and Father_

Sirius' lip turned up into the smallest of smirks. It appeared that his parents had taken his letter just as he wanted them to. Apparently he fully possessed the cunning attribute associated with Slytherin house.

Opening the next letter he found it was from his cousin Bella.

_Dear Sirius,_

_Cousin, it is good to see that you are following in the footsteps of all the Blacks before you, not that I ever had any doubt, you are too much like me to have been any different. You shall have to tell me of any trouble you get into, I know that when I was first at Hogwarts I got in endless detentions for hexing those below me, heavens knows why the professors even cared. _

_I look forward to hearing how you do in your lessons, particularly defence against the dark arts. I know from your spell work at home that you will simply excel in duels, it will be very useful in the future. There's things coming, things I know you shall be perfect for. I won't say more, but just wait cousin, our superior blood may be recognised by everyone soon enough._

_My mother and father have set a date for mine and Rod's wedding. It is the 19__th__ of December, meaning all the family will be in attendance seeing as it is during the Christmas holiday. The after party will be held at Grimmauld Place, so no doubt you will be seeing a lot of me over the holidays. _

_Hex some Mudbloods for me, cousin._

_Bellatrix_

Sirius rolled his eyes at the letter. It was Bella all over, wanting to know the mischief he got up to through the dark ways she could appreciate. Sirius wasn't particularly happy at the thought of all his extended family and fellow pureblood being at Grimmauld Place after the wedding, but he was well versed in knowing how to suppress his contempt for them.

The finally letter was from Regulus.

_To Siri, _

_What's Hogwarts like? Are the lessons good? Bella told me that you have to take a boat ride and avoid getting viciously attacked by the giant squid, is that true? _

_You have to tell me about all your lessons so that I know what to expect when I go, that way I can be so far ahead of everyone that they'll have no choice but to be impressed. Mother and father say that Transfiguration is useless, but you can tell me about it anyway. What about Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts? They sound by far the most interesting, maybe you can teach me some when you come home, it's not like mother and father will mind, they've taught us plenty already._

_Mother is boasting about you getting into Slytherin. I'm proud of you! I shouldn't say it, but I was half expecting you to get into Gryffindor or something. What's the common room like? Is that Zabini character okay? _

_Write back soon, I want to hear everything about Hogwarts, absolutely everything, and it's getting rather dull with only having Kreature to talk to._

_Regulus_

Sirius smiled at his little brother's letter. Regulus was as much a Black as everyone, but now and again Sirius could get a glimpse of some snippet of his personality which suggested he could perhaps be more outgoing and still possessed a small sliver of innocence. Pulling out a quill and spare bit of parchment, Sirius hastened to write a reply that he could take to the Owlery later on.

_To Little King,_

_Hogwarts is brilliant! Just like we always thought it would be. The moving staircases get a bit confusing at times, but most of the time I'm with Cissy and 'Dromeda so it's not like I get lost or anything. I haven't ran into Peeves the Poltergeist yet, but my friend Emileo has and apparently he jumped out of a suit of armour to scare him. The giant squid doesn't attack you, that's just Bella telling lies again. It just sort of swim about in the lake, you can see it from the common room windows sometimes since the dungeons are below the lake. The lessons are good so far, well except for History of Magic which is incredibly dull. I haven't had potions or defence against the dark arts soon, but as soon as I do I will make sure to write you all about them._

_Don't tell mother and father, but the sorting hat actually considered putting me in Gryffindor, but it must have seen my Black heritage and my cunning personality and decided Slytherin was the best option. I was rather relieved to be honest, you know how mother, father and Bella would react otherwise. _

_To get into the Slytherin common room you have to say a password, and then go down a small passageway. The common room reminds me a lot of the parlour at home actually. There furniture is dark and adorned with snakes and skulls and the room has a sort of green glow about it because of the lake out of the windows. The dorms are good, except I have to share it with Mulciber, Rosier and Snape. I absolutely hate them, but I'm not so stupid as to get on their bad side, it's hard enough with the rest of the school looking down on Slytherins without being on the outs with yours own house. The sound of the lake is really peaceful at night, lets you fall asleep straight away._

_Of course it's dull with Kreature! The little twerp does nothing but praise mother. What have you been doing while I have been gone? Played Quidditch much? I'm so annoyed that first years aren't allowed brooms. It's not like mother really approves of them all that much anyway, but I'm sure father could have convinced her otherwise._

_Write back soon,_

_Sirius_

Stuffing the letters into his robe pockets, Sirius returned to his breakfast. As he nibbled on the edge of a hash brown he looked up at Emileo. The Italian boy was hidden behind a copy of the daily prophet, the cover of which was showing the Tornadoes recent win over the Chudley Cannons, the latter of which only scored ten points to the Tornadoes four hundred and twenty. There was a moving picture of the Tornadoes seeker, who was a very pretty woman, holding the snitch triumphantly and winking at the camera.

"Anything interesting?" Sirius asked absently.

Emileo folded the daily prophet up and placed it in front of him, also returning to his breakfast now that he had finished reading.

"There's been another muggle family death, them and their muggleborn daughter," Emileo replied, not seeming at all fazed by the attack, but with the Slytherin pureblood families talk of such thing was the norm.

"Really?" Sirius said, his brows drawing together and a frown marring his face. "That's the third one this week"

Emileo only nodded, but also looked rather curious at all the attacks. Sirius suddenly recalled what Bella had written in her letter '_There's things coming, things I know you shall be perfect for. I won't say more, but just wait cousin, our superior blood may be recognised by everyone soon enough.' _Sirius tried to guess what this could mean and had an inkling it had something to do with the 'Dark Lord' he had heard being mentioned in passing, but decided that he wouldn't know more until he went home for Christmas, so he simply shook his head and sighed.

"What have we got today?" he said.

"Err," Emileo pulled out their timetable from his robe pocket. He looked at it for a moment before saying, "Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors"

Sirius smiled and nodded. He was happy to know that he had two lessons with the Gryffindors. It meant that he would have some lessons with Lily. She had told him earlier in the week when they first compared timetables that she would sit with Snape in Potions and with him in Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was a good thing that Lily wasn't a Hufflepuff as Slytherin had no lessons with them, he suspected it was because the teachers felt only the indifferent Ravenclaws and strong Gryffindors could deal with them.

"We better get going, if we turn up to late who knows who we could end up sitting with," Emileo said, glancing over at Mulciber, Rosier and Snape, who were snickering at a small Hufflepuff who had tripped over someone's bag on her way out of the hall, and sneering slightly.

Sirius nodded and quickly grabbed his things.

When the two of them got down to the Potions room, which was situated in the dungeons, not far from their common room, it was to find that most of the Gryffindors and Slytherins were already down there. Two of the latter, Juniper Avery and Lucinda Talkalot perked up when they saw the two of them, beginning to giggle slightly and whisper amongst themselves. Sirius and Emileo shared an eye roll. The two girls had been doing that all week, and the two of them were getting rather bored of it. True to her last name, Talkalot hardly ever stopped talking and Avery was just as bad.

Sirius looked around and it didn't take long to find Lily, her vibrant red hair standing out like a house elf in a giant reserve. She was talking to her fellow Gryffindor girls, Sirius didn't bother to remember their names, but he knew that if he was going to be spending more time with Lily he would have to attempt to get to know them. Sirius caught Lily's eye and smiled and she paused momentarily in her conversation to grin back.

"I can't believe your friends with a muggleborn," Emileo laughed, but was smart enough to do it lowly so that Avery and Talkalot didn't overhear.

"Why, what's wrong with that, Leo?" Sirius asked, sounding rather defensive.

Emileo raised a brow.

"Just that you're a Black, it's just funny is all. I bet you're the first Black to befriend a muggleborn in centuries," Emileo replied, shrugging, not seeming in the least bit fazed by Sirius' rather harsh tone.

Sirius nodded, accepting this, but he didn't apologise for assuming the worst, for assuming that Emileo was about to be derogatory about Muggleborns. Blacks don't apologise and it wasn't like Emileo didn't know why he had jumped to such a conclusion, he was a pureblood too after all, not as high up as the Blacks mind, but still pureblood.

The Potions Master, Professor Slughorn arrived at the classroom at the same time as Mulciber, Rosier and Snape. Sirius looked at Lily when she smiled at the latter, who didn't even acknowledge her in front of his new 'friends' and he frowned at the hurt that flashed on Lily's face. He couldn't even begin to fathom how Lily could be friends with such a brown-nosing git.

"Come along, come along," Slughorn called happily as he entered the room, gesturing for others to follow him. "I want you wall to pick a seat, but make sure it's mixed houses!" he called.

His last words got similar reactions from each house, the lot of them groaning and sneering at the opposite house. Sirius and Emileo just shared a look and shrugged moving to sit beside a Gryffindor. Sirius ended up beside scarred Remus Lupin and Emileo besides a pudgy boy that Sirius couldn't recall the name of.

"Potions has got little to do with wands, a more subtle magic that is to do with precise preparations of ingredients and the ability to properly follow instructions, of course many of the best potion makers are those who stray from the rules," Slughorn gave a laugh here. "Today we will be making a simple boil curing potion. Can anyone tell me the key ingredients?"

Immediately Snape's hand went into the air and not soon later so did Lily's.

"Yes, my boy, you have the answer?" Slughorn smiled, looking at Snape.

"The key ingredients to such a potion is dried nettles, snake fangs, horned slugs and porcupine quills," Snape recited in a drawling voice that had Potter, who was sitting behind him and Lily, rolling his hazel eyes behind his glasses.

"Right, of course, take ten points for Slytherin," Slughorn said. "For another ten can you tell me a bit about the potion?"

There was hardly even a pause before Snape answered, "It is an effective remedy against pustules, hives, boils and many other scrofulous conditions. It is a robust potions of powerful character. You should be careful when brewing because if prepared incorrectly the potion is known to cause boils, rather than cure them"

"Excellent, excellent, ten more points," Slughorn said happily, beaming and Snape looked extremely smug by the praise, seeming to get even more smug when he received a proud smile from Lily.

"Will everyone collect their ingredients and we'll be working in pairs to get the Potions brewed. The best ones will be saved and given to Madame Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing," Slughorn said and after a nod there was a huge scraping of chairs as everyone got to their feet to get the ingredients.

Sirius returned to the desk before Lupin, who looked to be having a hushed conversation with Potter at the store cupboard, so quickly set up the cauldron and began to slice up the Pungous Onions finely. When Lupin sat back down, he glanced at what Sirius was doing before beginning to crush the snake fangs.

Not soon later Sirius reached across Lupin to add the crushed snake fangs into the cauldron and stir, before putting the Pungous Onions in also and heating it, and he then added the dried nettles, which hadn't needed any preparation. As he did this he noticed that Lupin was glancing at him every now and then and biting his lip, before quickly glancing away, pretending he had never looked. Sirius finally had enough of this when he added a dash of flobberworm mucus and was stirring the potion vigorously.

He was the one who looked at Lupin this time, who quickly avoided his gaze and instead pretending to be fully focused on adding a sprinkle of powdered ginger root to the potion so that Sirius could stir vigorously again.

"You're nervous," Sirius said and it wasn't a question.

Lupin seemed startled that Sirius had initiated a conversation and looked up at him with wide brown eyes. Sirius tilted his head to regard the Gryffindor curiously. Despite the wide doe-eyes, there seemed to be a darkness about the scarred boy, not the level of darkness that all Blacks emitted, but…something, and it intrigued Sirius to no end.

"What makes you say that?" Lupin said.

Sirius raised a brow.

"Would you like a list?" he asked. "For starters, there's the lip biting and the fact that you keep glancing at me but pretending not to, there's the avoidance of eye contact and finally, answering a question with another question? Rooky mistake, that just seems more suspicious"

Lupin looked utterly shocked at Sirius' analysis of his behaviour and shifted uncomfortably, and added the pickled Shrake spines. If Lupin thought this was going to distract Sirius, he thought wrong as he didn't even have to look away from the boy to stir the potion gently as to not overexcite the Shrake spines.

"It's just- well it's that- my friend- err-" Lupin stuttered and Sirius found his lips tilting up in an amused smirk.

"It's that I'm a Black isn't it?" Sirius said it like a question, but it was more of an acknowledgement of what he knew to be true.

Remus hesitated for a moment before nodded. Sirius just hummed and nodded, turning back to the potion to add a glug of stewed horned slugs. The potion turned the blue colour it said it was supposed to in the book, now all he had to do was wait for the potion to begin to emit a pink smoke so that he could wave his wand over the potion and it would be complete.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Remus was eyeing him with a deep curiosity as he cleaned up some of the left over ingredients, but Sirius didn't say anything more, he rather enjoyed the mystery that seemed to surround him in regards to the Gryffindor.

Sirius leaned back casually in his chair and glanced at Emileo, who was situated at a desk behind him. He didn't seem to be having at all the same luck as Sirius had, easily completing the potion with the quite, studious Gryffindor. Emileo was looking rather frazzled, snatching an ingredient away from his Gryffindor partner to stop him from doing something wrong. The stout Gryffindor seemed to be alternating between looking down at the cauldron in front of them in complete panic and glancing, terrified, at Emileo.

Emileo seemed to sense his staring and looked up. 'Kill me' he mouthed, nodded toward the Gryffindor.

Sirius gave his friend a shit eating grin. 'And go to Azkaban? Not on your life' he mouthed back, making his friend glare at him, before he quickly became distracted by the Gryffindor adding something into the potion that made it begin to hiss.

"Excellent, excellent," a jaunty voice said and Sirius quickly turned to see that Slughorn was examining their potion closely a beaming smile on his face. "Brewed perfectly, this will be one for the hospital wing, eh? What're you names then, my boys?"

Lupin glanced at Sirius, who just quirked an eyebrow.

"Err…Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, sir," he said rather quietly.

Slughorn's brows almost disappeared into his receding hair line and was looking at Remus with an extremely strange expression. Sirius noted the strange expression as something to look into, especially seeing as it made Lupin shift in his seat and flush to travel up the back of his scarred neck.

"Ooh, a Black!" Slughorn exclaimed, turning to Sirius. "Taught many of your lot in my day, all of them in my house of course," he chuckled here. "I was especially to close to your aunt Lucretia Black, though I suppose it's Prewett now. Brilliant potions maker in her day, what's she up to nowadays?" he asked.

"Azkaban," Sirius said shortly, only just stopping his lips from quirking upward when he saw the uncomfortable look on the Professor's face and the rather alarmed one on Lupin's.

"Oh, that's too bad, she was such a talented young lady, very intelligent," Slughorn said, sighing heavily.

Sirius just nodded. He decided not to point out that his father's sister had clearly decide to use her intelligence to poison three muggleborn co-workers in the Ministry. Slughorn moved on after that and Sirius heard him awarding points to Lily and Snape, who seemed to have come up with a way to make the potion even more potent.

There was a sudden explosion behind him and Sirius whipped around to see an acrid green smoke surrounding where Emileo and his partner were standing. When the smoke cleared Sirius grimaced to see that boils were propping up on their pairs skin, both of them groaning in pain.

"Oh, dear, me!" Slughorn exclaimed, waving his wand to get rid of them smoke and rushing over. "Severus did say in the beginning to brew it carefully. Can someone escort them to the hospital wing?"

Sirius and Lupin both volunteered, so Sirius supposed Lupin must be a friend of the stout Gryffindors. When they got the hospital wing, having gotten some not at all helpful directions from a portrait of an old hag, and some very helpful directions from the Bloody Baron, who seemed to set the two Gryffindor's nerves on edge, Madame Pomfrey bustled over quickly and set the two boil covered boys on two separate beds. She shooed Sirius and Lupin away not soon after, gathering potions from her store and muttering, "There's some every year."

With Emileo in the Hospital Wing, Sirius went down to dinner on his own and sat beside his cousin Andromeda. Looking down the table, Sirius smiled and shook his head when he saw that Cissy was blushing a giggling at a very smug looking Lucius, who appeared to be enjoying the attention from a girl that all his fellow Slytherins stared at in awe.

"Where's Leo?" Andromeda asked him when he began to fill his plate with the delicious Hogwarts food, it was much better than anything Kreature managed to cook.

"The hospital wing. He got stuck with a Gryffindor who can't tell his cauldron from his desk," Sirius replied, snorting derisively and shaking his head. "Where've you just come from?"

"Muggle studies," Andromeda said.

Sirius nodded. He was pretty sure he was the only family member that knew 'Dromeda took that lesson. She had told her mother and father that she was taking Rune, but she had been ordering the Muggle Studies text books on the sly since third year.

"We learnt about telephones today. It's this thing that runs on electricity, which is kind of like muggle's magic, and they use it to talk to each other at long distances," Andromeda said, eyes lighting up with interest at the subject, but a moment later she sighed. "I don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad"

Sirius sighed too at that, but didn't answer, just continued to eat. Andromeda was silent for a time too, before she suddenly perked up at something behind Sirius and spoke up again. She leaned forward so that she could talk to Sirius in a hushed whisper across the table.

"See him there, with the brown hair talking to Arthur Weasley?" she asked hurriedly.

Sirius turned and followed Andromeda's dark eyed gaze.

Arthur Weasley was a fifth year with fiery red hair, freckles and glasses. Sirius knew he was the son of Septimus and Cedrella, as Cedrella Weasley nee Black had been disowned for marrying a Bloodtraitor. The only thing Sirius knew about Arthur however, was what he had learned from Lucius' angry mutterings, which included that he was oddly obsessed with muggles. Even now, he seemed to be questioning the boy Andromeda was looking at about something called a 'leaf blower.' The brown haired boy didn't seem all that impressive. He was of average height and build with a heart shaped face, dull brown eyes and rather large ears.

"What about him?" Sirius asked in bewilderment.

"That's Ted Tonks, I sit next to him in charms" she replied, sounding utterly thrilled at this fact.

"So?" Sirius frowned.

"_So," _Andromeda repeated, looking extremely frustrated that Sirius hadn't seemed to have gotten what the big deal was, "he's a muggleborn, and he's funny and nice, so that means it's not just a fluke about your friend Lily. He sits next to me in charms and he was telling me about his Aunt, who had gotten completely drunk of this muggle thing called wine and she-"

Sirius studied his favourite cousin as she regaled the story Ted Tonks had told her. Her eyes were lit up in a way that Sirius had never seen before, which made her for once look completely different to Bella, her pale cheeks were slightly flushed and there was a smile playing on her lips that she didn't even seem to be aware of.

"You like him," it wasn't a question.

Andromeda abruptly stopped talking and she looked at Sirius with wide eyes, the flush on her cheeks growing ever so slightly.

"I do not!" she exclaimed, leaning back.

"You so do!" Sirius laughed, pointing at her. "You've got that look on your face!"

"What look?" Andromeda asked incredulously, narrowing her eyes.

"The love-stuck look, you look like Kreature does when my mother talks to him, not to mention you've got that smile on your face," Sirius explained.

Andromeda's hand quickly darted up to her mouth and she touched her lips with her fingertips, looking utterly surprised when she did indeed find a smile on her face. Andromeda was silent for a moment, looking rather thoughtful, before her eyes widened again, making her look rather horrified.

"Merlin," she breathed. "I like him"

Sirius just nodded, already knowing that.

"What am I going to do?" she hissed, panicked.

"About what?" he asked in confusion.

Andromeda sighed in aggravation and gave him a look that told him she thought it should have been obvious.

"About the fact that I like Ted. My parents will kill me, not to mention Bella and your parents and grandma Irma. They'll disown me for sure," Andromeda's cheeks were flushed for an entirely different reason now.

"So?" Sirius asked.

Andromeda looked completely dumbfounded by his flippant reaction to being disowned.

After dinner, Sirius made his way to Defence Against the Dark Arts. True to her word, Lily had sat beside Sirius this lesson, and Emileo, fresh from the hospital wing, sat on his other side, barely even batting an eyelid at the Gryffindor's presence. Defence against the Dark Arts was something Sirius was most looking forward to, having been told by his tutor that he already excelled at the art of duelling, however, his eagerness was short lived. The Professor, Georgina Lockwood, seemed to only want to focus on the theory of the subject and whenever anyone asked her about anything to do with real life, she gave a little shriek, turned pink and quickly changed the subject.

Sirius and Lily quickly packed up their stuff after the lesson, sighing in relief at being able to exit the classroom as the lesson had been almost as boring as one of Professor Binns' lectures. As the two of them walked across the grounds, they looked at a crowd that had gathered curiously. The crowd was beside the Whomping Willow, which Narcissa had told him had only been planted this year, and two red haired twins seemed to be taking bets on how close people could get to the trunk so students were darting forward, getting as close as they would dare and trying to avoid getting viciously whacked by the swinging braches. Sirius' lips quirked in amusement at the antics, while Lily frowned disapprovingly and shook her head, grabbing Sirius' elbow so that he would continue walking instead of getting to invested in the seen. The silence between them was only broken when Lily spoke once they had sat themselves beside the lake.

"Sirius?" Lily asked.

"Yes?" Sirius responded, not opening his eyes from where he was positioned, leaning back on his elbows, head tilted backwards to bask in the sunlight.

"What's a Mudblood?" her voice came.

Sirius' eyes opened at that and his head snapped in Lily's direction. She was sitting beside him, cross legged, and picking at the grass in front of her, her gaze flickering between what her hands were doing and Sirius' face.

"Who called you that?" he demanded, sitting up sharply, not like the idea of anyone calling his friend that.

"Some Slytherins, before dinner," she shrugged as though this was no big deal, but Sirius could see that it had been bothering her. "I could tell it was offensive of course, because Dorcas and Emma got very angry, but…I don't know what it means"

"It's a foul word," Sirius said tightly. "It's what people say instead of muggleborn when they believe being pureblood makes you superior. It means dirty blood, they think you're contaminated because you have muggle parents, that you're somehow _less" _Sirius snorted bitterly then, he couldn't understand how his parents could think that, how _he_ had once thought that.

"Oh," Lily whispered, looking down and Sirius sighed when he saw that her emerald eyes were overly bright and her teeth were worrying her bottom lip.

Sirius liked that Lily showed when she was upset, not like his family that his it behind a cold mask that made you wonder if they even felt such trivial things as emotions at all. Lily didn't pretend for anyone, not for her parents or her sister or for him. When she got mad, she yelled, when said, she cried, when happy, she smiled, and Sirius loved that about her.

"Hey," Sirius said, in a gentle voice that he didn't even know he could manage, and he reached forward to tip Lily's chin up and make her look at him. "Don't listen to them, okay? Lily Evans, you are beautiful and strong and opinionated, and you have managed so well at not knowing this world. I mean, look at how smart you are! In our charms class, Flitwick already used you to set a good example. Don't even think that you're less, because Lily, you are one of the best of us"

Tears were falling down Lily's cheeks now and she was sniffling, but her lips were tilted upwards and she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of Sirius' earnest face. Quite suddenly, Lily jerked forward and pulled Sirius into a bone crushing hug.

Sirius froze in shock. he wasn't used to this sort of physical affection. Sure there was that cousin who insisted on kissing both his cheeks, but she was French and it was tradition so it didn't really count, and there was that uncle who always got completely sloshed, and he could tell the boozy arms slung over his shoulder as the elderly wizard passed by, almost knocking Sirius off his feet. His mother never had liked him, but she put up with him because he was pure and rich and that was the only thing that mattered in pureblood society. The point was, this was completely unprecedented and Sirius felt like his insides had turned to ice.

"Thank you," Lily whispered, tightening her grip ever so slightly.

At her words, Sirius seemed to instantly relax, as though under a spell, and he slowly lifted his arms to wrap around her small frame and return the hug.

"You know," Sirius said after a moment of this, not particularly wanting to let the sentimentality continue, "if you really want to thank me you could let me copy your history of magic essay"

Lily chuckled and pulled away, wiping her wet cheeks with a wide smile that lit up her eyes.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "You won't learn if you don't do your homework, you'll have to do it yourself"

"But I slept through most of the lesson," Sirius protested.

"Well, then you'll just have to go to the library," Lily said with a grin, as though she was enjoying how much this was annoying him, and she grabbed her bag and hopped to her feet.

"But- Lily!" he called after her as she began to leave, but he only got a tinkling laugh in response.

Sirius didn't know how long he sat there, a bemused expression on his face as he stared of in the direction Lily had left. He must really like the girl if he allowed her to get one over on him like that without revenge, if it was anyone else his Black side would have come out in the form of a scathing comment that could deeply or a dark hex.

Finally, Sirius sighed and made his way to the library as she had said. It didn't take long for Sirius to find a book on goblin rebellions, as that seemed to be what half the history section was about and he situated himself on an empty table, but paused in the act of taking out his ink, quill and parchment when he caught sight of a familiar figure at the table opposite his.

It was Ophelia Ravenwood. Ophelia had black hair that seemed to shine blue in the candlelight, sun kissed skin and bright blue eyes, which stood out even more against the dark lashes that bordered them.

Sirius had seen her around the pureblood parties he had been forced to attend, and around the common room in the past week, but he had never spoken to her. Ophelia seemed to dislike everyone as much as she did, seeming to spend most of her time glaring at Avery and Talkalot, who seemed to talk so much that they didn't even seem to notice that her short responses to their questions probably meant she wanted them to go away. He wasn't sure if the reason he disliked everyone was because she disagreed with their ideology like he did, or if she just had a hatred of people in general like Bella, but Sirius had an interest in her.

After thinking it through for a moment Sirius got up and mad his way over to where she was sitting, writing on a piece of parchment. Ophelia jumped when he dropped the heavy history of magic book on the desk next to her and plopped down on an available seat with an easy grace. Sirius grinned at the not at all please look on her face as he got parchment, quill and ink from his bag.

"Hey, I'm-" Sirius started, but Ophelia cut across him.

"Sirius Black, I know," she interrupted with a rather flat voice and Sirius rose a brow, feeling rather impressed at how she had managed to mask the aggravation in her voice, but Sirius could see her true feelings in her face, no one could deceive a Black as they were the masters of deception.

"Has anyone ever told you your rather rude?" he asked, in an innocently curious voice.

"Yes, but I'll be sure to add your name to the list," she said shortly, not looking up from the essay she was writing.

Sirius opened his book and also began to write on his parchment, using that swooping lettering that he had been taught when he was barely even old enough to speak. He barely got to sentences in before he stopped, tapping his quill thoughtfully against his lips and looking at Ophelia, who seemed to try hard not to tense under his intense gaze.

"So…how's your day been?" Sirius asked, leaning back casually in his chair, completely ignoring the rather sharp look he received from Madam Pince, the librarian, for daring to talk.

"Fine," Ophelia said shortly, not pausing in her writing.

Sirius allowed her to write to more sentences in silence before he spoke again.

"Those disappearances in the Daily Prophet are weird right?" he asked nonchalantly.

Ophelia's grip tightened on her quill and she sighed in annoyance. Finally she looked up at him, settling her brilliantly blue eyes on him angrily, a pink tinge to her tan cheeks.

"Why are you even bothering?" she snapped. "You don't know me"

"I want to, though," Sirius replied calmly.

His immunity to her heated glare and sharp answers seemed to only fuel her aggravation. Her jaw tightened and so did her grip on the quill in her hand, which he suspected would snap if put under any more pressure.

"Well, I don't want to know you," she retorted.

Sirius just smiled serenely, twiddling his own quill deftly between nimble fingers.

"Well, I'm afraid it's not going to be that easy," he said and she furrowed her brows in confusion, not seeming to notice that he was packing his things back into his bag. "As I'm going to be talking to you tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the – well, you get how It works."

Ophelia breathed deeply and released the breath slowly, staring at Sirius.

"Don't stay up too late thinking of way to get rid of me, I hear it give you wrinkles," Sirius teased, throwing in a wink for good measure and left the library before Ophelia could do anything more than mouth soundlessly at him.

When Sirius returned to the first year Slytherin dormitory it was to find Rosier in an argument with Emileo. It seemed that Emileo's kitten, Crookshanks, who was a bowlegged half Kneazle with a squashed face, had fallen asleep over his bed, leaving it covered in ginger fur. Emileo spoiled the kitten rotten, and was currently cradling it too his chest as Rosier shouted at him about the 'foul beast.'

"Don't be like that, Rosier," Sirius said casually as he entered the dorm, placing his bag on the side and moving to remove his pyjamas from his trunk. "It just means he likes you. You should be flattered, he's about the only one"

Sirius shared a grin with Emileo, but otherwise ignored Rosier's angry exclamation that followed and moved to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

**Author's note: Please review! I worked really hard on this and am doing my best to make everything how it should be. This story is only going to be in the perspective of Lily, Sirius, Remus and James. Who's point of view would you like to see next?**

**REVIEW!**


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